Morning Bell 29 May

Between the Bells

US equities declined overnight with all three major benchmarks in the red. The Dow Jones declined 0.58%, the S&P500 down 0.56%, while the Nasdaq dropped 0.51%. S&P500 futures are on the rise after Nvidia posted earnings that beat expectations, its price advancing more than 4% in after-hours trading, so this may mean good news for tech investors today. Keep watch of ASX- listed AI stocks such as WiseTech (ASX:WTC), Xero (ASX:XRO) or NextDC (ASX:NXT).

European markets were also in the red, with the STOXX 600 closing 0.61% lower.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 declined 0.13%. Financial and materials took the biggest hit, while energy and real estate were in the lead, following a rise in the consumer price index for April, which was held at 2.4% YoY. The market consensus was for it to slow to 2.3%. The RBA is looking at the data closely to ensure inflation, which is now back in the Central Bank’s target band, keeps tracking in the right direction.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open higher, with the SPI futures suggesting a 0.15% rise at the open this morning.
• In commodities,
  • Crude oil has advanced 1.43%, currently trading at US$61.94 per barrel, as investors await an OPEC+ meeting expected to decide on increasing oil output. They’ll likely approve a 411,000 barrel per day production hike for July, continuing a trend of accelerating supply growth following a similar increase planned for June.
  • The price of gold is down 0.73%, trading at US$3,284.88 an ounce following the Fed’s meeting minutes revealing concerns around inflation and labour market weakness.
  • While iron ore is trading steady at US$99.39 per tonne.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter see Telstra (ASX:TLS) shares as fully valued. They have maintained a Hold trading on TLS with an improved 12- month price target of $4.65, up 7%.
• And Trading Central have identified a bullish signal in Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $5.68 to the range of $6.90 to $7.90 over 50 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.